Liz Patek in Central Park

Liz and I were actually supposed to meet back in March… of 2011. We’d arranged to meet at the entrance to Central Park for a portrait. I showed up in the wrong place, Liz accosted an innocent cyclist thinking it was me… it didn’t work out. Finally our paths crossed in January 2013.

Like many people in this blog, I first “met” Liz on Twitter, where she is @bikepeacenyc. I admired her reasonable but passionate voice in advocating for safer, complete streets and more people on bikes. She’s a big believer in riding a bike for transportation without too many frills and seems to always be on top of the latest livable streets issues in New York City. Liz commutes all over the city on her bike (she’s a pilates instructor), writes about New York city cycling on her blog (here’s a recent post I really liked), and tirelessly photographs street scenes and riders she meets along the way. That SLR is in the photo for a reason. I wish I were half as prolific as Liz.

When you tweet back and forth with a person for a couple of years you get to feel like you know them and form a persona for them in your mind. And of course they’re totally different in real life. Fortunately, Liz did not disappoint. After we finally linked up in Central Park, we sat on our saddles and talked about all things bike-related for almost an hour, at which point we realized that a) we hadn’t taken any photos, and b) it was really, really cold. So we scrambled to take a few shots before the chills took over completely.

I loved the pairing of her seriously weathered Trek Allant with those stylin’ pannier bags. It’s “cycle chic” married to the realities of New York city riding. The best.